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CONTENTS. 


Poem— "Let's  Have  It  Now" 
"God  Give  Us  Men" 
''Some  Facts  About  Railroads" 


Thomas  C.  Clark 

Holland 

W.  C.  Green 


Entered  at  the  Postoffice  at  Girard,  Kansas,  as  second-class  matter. 
> ***K***************** ********^**^^^**** 


*  *  *  *  'I*  'I'  '!'  'I'  *  "I"  'I'  -I" 


Price  Sets.  PUBLISHED  BY     Per  Year  50  ct» 

J.  A.  WAYLAND, 

Number  25.  GIRARD.  KANS.  May,   If  02. 

.  »  .|.  .1.  .f  -I'  -I-  i'  '!•  *  -I"  *  •!"  -I"  -I"  i  *  "I"  *  *  *******  i'  *  *  i»l>*  ++i>i>+++ 


LILT'S  HAVE,  IT  NOW. 

We're  gittin'  tired  o'  hearin'  of  these  "mansions  in 

the  skies," 
And   lots   o'   things  we   once  believed   we've   foun' 

are  just  plain  lies; 
So  we've  concluded  that  we'd  sooner  have  a  little 

pleasure  here, 
An'  it's  time  enough  for  wings  to  sprout  when  we 

git  over  there. 

Now  this  don't  mean  we  don't  believe  there's  bet- 
ter times  ahead, 

But  just  that  we  don't  want  to  wait  to  git  it 
when  we're  dead; 

We'd  just  like  to  have  a  little  of  it  while  we're 
here  below, 

We  don't  ask  a  million' dollars,  but  we  want  a  little 
show. 

It's  gittin'  so  that  one  or  two  are  hoggin'  all  the 

earth. 
They've  had  their  fingers  in  our  pockets  from  the 

hour  of  our  birth; 
"They   git    us   both    a-comin'    and    a-goin'    just    the 

same, 
But  we're  gittin'  on  to  them,  you  bet,  and  mean  to 

block  their  game. 

If  you  listen  just  a  little  an'   keep  quiet  you  will 

hear 
The  far-off  sound  of  freedom,  'twon't  be  long  until 

it's  near; 
So  lets  all  get  close  together  an'  work  with  all  our 

might, 
To  hurry  up  the  glorious  dawn  of  Brotherhood  and 

Light. 

-THOMAS  O.  CLARK. 
Baltimore,  Md. 


GOD  GIVE  US  MEN. 

'H3od  give  us'men  a  tlme'lVke  thU»  Demands 
'Strong  arms,  true  faith  fend  ?eudy  hands; 
M«  n  whom  the  luats  of  jutfice  cannot  kill. 
Men  whtfm  th«  spp^i  of-  p*fice  cannot;  buy, 
M.II  wht/px»s€wopifilons«a-ndia  will*  • 
Men  who  have  honor  and  who  will  not  lie. 
'Men  who  can  stand  and  face  a  demagogue, 
And  damn  his  treacherous  flat'ries  without  wink- 
ing. 

Tall  men  suncrowned  who  live  above  the  fog 
In  public  duty  and  In  private  thinking. 
For  while  old  parties  with  their  thumb  worn  creeds, 
Their  large  professions  and  their  little  deeds, 
Mingle  in  selfish  strife,  lo!  freedom  weeps, 
Wrong  rules  the  land  and  waiting  Justice  sleeps." 
HOLLAND,  In  New  Century  Song  Book  by  Law- 
rence. 


NO  25  MAY,  1902.  PRICE,  5  CENTS 


Some  Facts  About  Railroads* 

By  W.  C.  GREE.N. 

I  think  if  the  people  of  this  country  knew  the  real  truth 
about  our  railroads  they  would  not  be  long  in  making  them 
public  property. 

RAILROADS  ARE  PUBLIC  HIGHWAYS. 

Railroads  are  PUBLIC  highways,  and  as  corporations 
they  exist  OXLY  by  the  authority  and  sufferance  of  the 
people. 

All  public  highways  belong  exclusively  to  the  people 
and  cannot  be  alienated  from  them  by  any  power  whatever. 

The  control  and  operation  of  the  public  highways  is 
exclusively  a  function  of  the  sovereign  state,  and  as  such, 
cannot  legitimately  be  delegated  to  any  private  person  or 
corporation. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  says:  "The 
Tight  of  eminent  domain  nowhere  justifies  the  taking  of 
property  for  private  use,"  and  as  railroads  can  only  be  built 
}>y  exercising  this  right,  it  follows  that  they  cannot  rightfully 
^be  built  by  private  corporations  for  private  use. 

All  attempts  of  the  state  to  delegate  any  public  function 
to  private  persons  or  corporations  are  gross  abuses  and  per- 
versions of  the  public  powers  and  an  abdication  of  its  au- 
thority, which  if  carried  to  its  logical  conclusion,  would  abol- 
ish the  state  altogether.  Where  it  is  done  in  the  case  of 


300396 


railway  corporations,  Henry  Lloyd  (author  of  Wealth  vs. 
Commonwealth)  calls  it  "the  embezzlement  of  public  high- 
ways and  public  franchises  into  private  property."  And 
again.  "If  the  private  use  of  private  ownership  of  highways 
is  to  go,  the  private  ownership  must  go.  There  must  be  no 
private  use  of  public  powers  or  public  property."  And 
again.  "All  the  grants  of  franchises  that  have  been  given 
into  private  hands  for  private  profit  are  void  in  morals,  and 
void  in  that  higher  law  which  sets  the  copy  for  the  laggard 
pens  of  legislators  and  judges." 

Every  attempt  to  turn  over  public  powers  to  the  use  of 
private  individuals  has  always  resulted,  and  must  of  necessi- 
tv  result,  in  multiplied  evils,  wrongs  and  mischiefs,  for  it  is 
an  attempt  to  make  an  impossible  and  unnatural  partnership 
between  the  state  and  favored  individuals  with  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  giving  such  favored  individuals  the  right  of  taxa- 
tion, which  is  inherent  only  in  the  sovereign  power,  and  of 
iiHiiir  it  as  a  means  of  plundering  the  rest  of  the  people.  Of 
course  this  has  always  been  done  under  the  false  pretense 
of  benefitting  the  people;  but  it  has  always,  and  in  all  times 
and  in  all  places,  resulted  in  planting  an  invsjircssible  con- 
flict between  the  people  and  the  persons  securim:  tin-  illegiti- 
mate benefits  derived  therefrom.  Their  interests  and  those 
of  the  people  are  necessarily  antagonistic  in  all  things  that 
inevitably  result  in  perpetual  conflict  between  them. 

The  exercising  by  private  persons  of  public  functions 
ift  essentially  immoral  and  indefensible  in  every  respect,  and 
so  far  from  becoming  a  "vested  right,"  as  claimed  by  rail- 
way corporations  and  others,  is,  on  the  contrary.  >imply  an 
intolerable  and  dangerous  nuisance  which  >lx>uld  he  abated 
without  unnecessary  delay.  It  is  a  survival  of  the  lon«r  since 

••dell  theory  of  the  divine  ri^ht  of  kinus  and  of  privileged 
classes,  when  the  people  had  no  rights  that  these  thieves  and 


— 5— 

plunderers  were  bound  to  respect.     They  have  no  place  in  a 
free  country.     We  have  outgrown  them,  and  it  is  high  time 
they  were  cast  aside  into  the  lumber  room  of  other  past  bar- 
barisms and  tyrannies. 
RAILWAY  MISMANAGEMENT  AND  LAWLESSNESS. 

According  to  the  books  on  the  subject,  the  management 
of  our  American  railways  would  "shame  hell  in  its  palmiest 
days." 

It  is  shown  not  only  to  be  grossly  incompetent,  but 
criminal  and  vicious  almost  beyond  belief.  The  whole  sys- 
tem seems  to  be  a  festering  mass,  reeking  with  corruption, 
chaotic  mismanagement  and  reckless  abuse  of  its  enormous 
powers.  While  under  proper  management  it  would  become 
the  means  of  almost  inconceivable  progress  and  prosperity 
to  the  nation  with  corresponding  profits  to  its  owners,  it  is, 
instead,  by  its  overmastering  greed  and  corruption  the  great- 
est stumbling  block  to  both  progress  and  profit. 

Their  maxim  of  charging  "all  the  traffic  will  bear,"  is  not 
only  the  worst  of  robber  maxims,  meaning  simply  to  squeeze 
the  last  possible  drop  of  blood  from  their  victims,  but  it  ut- 
terly defeats  its  purpose.  Whatever  of  prosperity  the  coun- 
try and  the  railways  enjoy  is  secured  wholly  in  spite  of  their 
iniquitous  methods. 

Here  are  a  few  of  the  charges  made  against  them : 

1.  Gross  and  criminal  mismanagement.  It  is  shown 
that  although  the  railroad  business  is  among  the  very  best 
money  making  businesses  in  the  world  under  honest  and 
competent  management,  yet  about  "four-fifths  of  the  stock 
and  one-fifth  of  the  bonds  of  American  railroads  go  fruitless 
every  year,"  and  as  much  as  25  per  cent  of  the  railways  are 
sometimes  in  the  hands  of  receivers  at  one  time;  that  their 
stocks  fluctuate  from  30  to  300  per  cent  and  their  bonds 
from  5  to  100  per  cent  during  every  year;  that  their  fares 


and  freights  are  so  exorbitant  as  to  kill  all  business  but  such- 
as  must  be  transacted  at  any  price;  that  their  management 
is  simply  murderous  in  its  recklessness;  that  they  kill  out- 
right over  7,000  and  maim  over  45,000  persons  every  year;, 
that  this  slaughter  is  worse  than  war  itself  and  that  the  num- 
ber killed  by  them  of  their  employes  alone  is  2%  times  as. 
many,  and  the  number  injured  is  7^  times  as  many  as  upon 
English  railways,  while  the  number  of  passengers  killed  is  7 
times  and  the  number  injured  is  10  times  the  number  on 
German  railways.  The  Interstate  Commission  says:  "Right 
under  our  eyes  is  waging  daily  a  battle  more  deadly,  more 
bloody,  more  cruel  and  atrocious  than  any  of  modern 
times/'  and  that  "our  railway  management  is  in  a  state  of 
anarchy  and  is  morally  reckless." 

2.  It  is  charged  that  the  railways  are  criminal  and  rot- 
ten to  the  core.  It  is  shown  that  they  have  the  power  to  de- 
stroy the  business  of  every  man  and  control  the  value  of  his 
property,  and  that  they  continually  misuse  and  abuse  this 
power.  Henry  Lloyd  says  that  no  American  farmer  today 
has  more  than  a  nominal  title  to  his  farm,  for  the  railroads 
can  and  do  make  and  unmake  its  value  at  their  own  whim 
or  will.  It  is  shown  that  the  railways  make  it  their  universal 
practice  to  conspire  with  favored  customers  to  break  down 
and  ruin  rivals  in  business;  that  two  trunk  lines  deliberately 
sunk  over  $10,000,000  of  their  stockholders'  money  in  assi-t- 
ing  the  Standard  Oil  company  to  ruin  a  rival  pipe  line  com- 
pany; that  they  and  other  railroads  contracted  with  said  oil 
company  to  transport  its  oil  at  10  cents  per  barrel  and  to- 
charge  its  rivals  35  cents  per  barrel,  and,  in  addition,  i  >  -rive 
this  extra  25  cents  over-charges  to  the  Standard  Oil  com- 
pany. In  this  way  the  Standard  Oil  company  ha-  received 
from  the  railways  tens  of  millions  of  dollars  every  year  for 
many  years.  Franklin  B.  Gowen,  an  expert,  examined  the- 


— 7— 

books  of  one  of  these  railways  in  behalf  of  its  stockholders- 
and  found  that  it  had  given  away  to  favorites  of  the  man- 
agement over  $100,000,000  in  twenty  years.  He  says  the- 
railways  of  this  country  give  away  to  favored  shippers  in  re- 
bates from  $50,000,000  to  $100,000,000  every  year:  This 
practice  of  conspiring  secretly  to  ruin  rivals  of  favored  cus- 
tomers has  become  a  most  intolerable  nuisance,  and  has  made 
the  railroads  of  the  country  dangerous  public  enemies  that 
should  be  suppressed.  The  Interstate  Commission  says  that 
railways  habitually  break  any  law  that  does  not  suit  them 
and  insolently  say  that  they  do  it  "because  they  do  not  like 
them,"  and  that  railway  managers  "are  guilty  of  acts  which, 
if  the  laws  of  the  land  were  enforced,  would  subject  them  to 
fine  and  imprisonment."  United  States  Senate  Document 
No.  53  charges  that  the  railroads  give  free  transportation  to 
everyone  who  may  be  of  service  to  them  "from  constable  to 
cabinet,"  and  that  these  favors  are  intended  as  bribes.  It 
is  a  notorious  fact  that  the  railroads  maintain  at  Washington 
and  at  every  state  capital,  a  paid  lobby  of  expert  bribers  for 
the  express  purpose  of  controling  congress  and  the  state 
legislatures  in  their  interests.  The  late  Governor  Pingree 
said  that  there  were  better  men  in  the  Michigan  penitentiary 
than  these  lobbyists. 

It  is  shown  that  the  railroads  are  beating  the  govern- 
ment out  of  more  than  $20,000,000  annually  by  their  exor- 
bitant charges  for  carrying  the  mails,  that  they  charge 
twenty  times  as  much  for  this  service  as  they  do  the  express, 
companies  for  like  service ;  that  they  charge  the  government 
over  100  per  cent  of  the  entire  value  of  the  mail  cars  an- 
nually for  their  use;  that  they  habitually  pad  the  mails  at 
the  time  of  weighing  them  with  a  vast  lot  of  bogus  matter 
in  order  to  cheat  the  government  into  paying  for  more  than 
is  carried. 


It  is  shown  that  the  railways  have  entered  permanently 
into  the  practice  of  controling  primaries,  elections,  candi- 
dates and  public  men  until  it  has  become  dangerous  to  demo- 
•cratic  institutions.  No  other  circumstance  exists  today 
casting  so  much  doubt  upon  the  permanency  and  stigma  on 
the  purity  of  our  republican  form  of  government. 

It  is  shown  that  the  railway  managers  perjure  them- 
selves with  the  utmost  fluency  and  sang  froid  wnenever  the 
occasion  requires,  that  they  make  a  practice  of  debauching 
our  judges,  the  pulpit,  the  public  press  and  everybody  in 
^ight  for  whom  they  have  the  least  use. 
COLOSSAL  SWINDLES  PERPETRATED  ON  THE  PEO- 
PLE BY  RAILWAYS. 

Out  of  twelve  billions  of  dollars  of  railway  capitalization 
in  this  country  over  eight  billions  is  water.  Every  dollar 
of  this  watered  stock  is  based  upon  franchises  and  other 
valuable  things  secured  from  the  people  under  false  pretenses 
and  without  any  compensation  whatever.  On  this  fraudu- 
lently capitalized  stock  the  whole  people  are  required  to  pay 
^an  annual  tribute  to  these  corporations  of  over  three  hun- 
dred millions  of  dollars. 

The  amount  of  land  alone  that  the  railroads  have  man- 
aged to  cheat  the  people  out  of  without  any  compensation 
would  give  every  homeless  family  in  the  land  a  farm  of  thirty 
acres,  and  the  $8,000,000,000  of  fraudulently  capitalized 
franchises  out  of  which  they  have  bilked  the  people  would 
give  every  such  family  a  $1,000  home.  The  anmuil  Iribute 
the  people  are  compelled  to  pay  on  this  fraudulent  stock 
would  parallel  every  trunk  line  railroad  in  the  country  in 
ten  years.  Speaking  of  this  sort  of  tliinir.  Ili-nry  1).  Lloyd 
says:  "Property  to  the  extent  of  uncounted  millions  has 
been  changed  from  the  possession  of  the  many  who  owned  it 
to  the  few  who  hold  it — 


1.  Without  the  knowledge  of  the  real  owners. 

2.  Without  their  consent. 

3.  With  no  compensation  for  the  value  taken. 

4.  By  falsehood,  often  under  oath. 

5.  In  violation  of  the  law." 

Railway  charges  are  practically  prohibitory  and  a  se- 
rious block  to  the  country's  progress. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  extortionate  ly  high 
charges  of  America  railways  are  blocking  the  progress  of  this 
country  more  than  any  other  cause.  While  the  economies 
in  railway  transportation  have  been  enormous  and  their  ef- 
ficiency vastly  increased  within  the  past  few  years,  yet  the 
fares  are  even  higher  now  than  they  were  years  ago,  and  the 
freight  rates  have  not  been  reduced  anywhere  near  to  what 
they  ought  to  be  under  the  improvements  and  savings  ef- 
fected. Both  are  simply  extortionate,  as  I  shall  show  here- 
after. 

The  losses  of  ^ew  Jersey  farmers  alone  are  estimated 
to  be  over  $10,000,000  a  year,  owing  to  high  railway  charges. 

The  American  people  do  not  and  cannot  travel.  "At 
least  90  per  cent  of  them  have  never  seen  the  national  capi- 
tol,  or  even  one  of  principal  cities."  Only  such  business  is 
done  over  the  railroads  as  must  be  done  at  any  price.  "They 
have  driven  off  the  ox  teams  and  the  stage  coaches,  and  now 
keep  them  off  by  charging  only  slightly  less  fares  and 
freight  rates  than  those  conveyances."  In  fact,  it  is  shown 
that  they  are  charging  the  government  50  per  cent  more  for 
carrying  the  mails  than  the  old  stage  coaches  used  to  charge 
for  the  same  service.  And  yet,  owing  to  the  prohibitory 
fares,  few  of  the  passenger  trains  pay  expenses ;  and  the  pal- 
ace cars  pay  less  than  their  expenses.  It  is  said 
that  there  is  only  one  railway  west  of  Chicago  whose  passen- 
ger trains  pay  expenses,  and  that  20  per  cent  of  the  passen- 
ger traffic  on  western  roads  is  upon  free  passes. 


—10- 

That  this  is  solely  owing  to  high  fares  the  following 
facts  will  prove : 

The  average  nuhiber  of  passengers  per  train  is  only  40, 
while  with  our  modern  locomotives  they  might  haul  at  least 
ten  cars  carrying  640  passengers. 

The  average  dead  weight  hauled  per  passenger  is  7,500 
pounds,  or,  say,  fifty  times  as  much  non-paying  weight  as 
paying  weight. 

The  average  earnings  of  passenger  trains  per  trip  are 
only  about  $20. 

In  poverty  stricken  India,  with  their  low  fares,  the  aver- 
age train  carries  250  passengers. 

The  Manhattan  Elevated  railway,  with  its  100  miles  of 
track,  uniform  5  cent  fares,  and  serving  a  population  of  only 
about  2,000,000  people,  carried  in  1893  over  40  per  cent  as 
many  passengers  as  did  all  the  railways  of  the  United  States, 
with  their  170,000  miles  of  track  and  serving  a  population  df 
over  60,000,000.  After  paying  $2,000,000  in  rentals  and  in- 
terest on  its  bonds,  it  earned  nearly  10  per  cent  upon  its 
$30,000,000  of  capital  stock  (largely  water). 

That  the  freight  trains  do  not  begin  to  earn  as  much  as 
they  might  with  lower  freight  rates  is  shown  by  the  following 
facts : 

The  average  freight  train  consists  of  only  twenty-one 
cars,  of  which  40  per  cent  run  empty,  while  the  modern 
freight  locomotive  is  capable  of  hauling  60  full  loaded  cars. 

The  average  car  only  carries  about  three  tons  of  frckht . 
when  it  has  a  capacity  of  thirty  tons;  and  so  the  average 

nviirlit  train  only  carries  about  forty  tons,  when  il 
with  slight  additional  expense,  carry  1,800  tons  of 
freight. 

The  average  freight  car  only  does  about  twelve  full 
days'  work  in  a  year  and  only  earns  $6.40  per  ha  id,  while 


— 11— 

with  low  freight  rates  it  could  do  at  least  ten  times  as  much 
work  and  earn  just  as  much  per  haul. 

WONDERFUL  POSSIBILITIES  OP  RAILWAY  TRANS- 
PORTATION". 

The  possibilities  of  railway  transportation  are  almost 
inconceivably  great.  They  will  be  vastly  greater  when  elec- 
tricity comes  into  general  use.  Even  now  "it  costs  no  more 
;to  carry  a  ton  of  freight  1,000  miles  than  it  used  to  cost  to 
carry  a  letter  half  that  distance."  Hon.  J.  L.  Cowles,  in  his 
book,  "A  General  Freight  and  Passenger  Post/'  shows  this 
most  strikingly. 

He  boldly  proposes  that  the  government  own  and  oper- 
ate the  railways  of  the  country  and  run  them  on  uniform 
fares  and  freight  rates,  and  he  shows  that  they  could  be 
profitably  run  on  the  following  low  charges,  viz :  Passenger 
fares  on  "local"  trains  at  a  uniform  rate  of  FIVE  cents, 
without  reference  to  distance  traveled.  On  through  trains 
fares  to  be  25  cents  and  $1,  according  to  the  train  taken, 
"Express"  or  "Fast." 

This  is  so  entirely  out  of  any  former  experience  that  it 
will  cause  wonderment  to  many,  and  no  doubt  some  will  de- 
clare it  to  be  impossible.  It  is  not  only  possible,  but  there 
can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  about  it,  for  it  is  no  mere  theory 
of  his,  but  he  proves  it  to  be  practicable  by  existing  facts 
and  examples,  and  even  shows  that  it  would  prove  much 
more  profitable  than  the  existing  charges  are. 

The  principal  facts  are  these :  Even  under  existing  in- 
competent, wasteful  and  extravagant  management,  the  av- 
erage passenger  fare  on  our  railroads  is  only  a  triflle  over  50 
cents  per  trip.  So  it  is  clear  that  if  tickets  were  issued  at 
a  uniform  price  of  50  cents,  good  for  any  distance,  even  now, 
that  the  passenger  revenues  of  the  railroads  would  be  fully 
as  great  as  they  now  are,  and  one  might  ride  across  the 
continent  on  such  a  ticket.  Some  might  say  that  everyone 


—12— 

would  then  ride  across  the  continent  and  so  it  could  not  bo 
done.  This  is  not  true.  They  would  ride  just  where  they 
wanted  to  go  and  no  further,  same  as  they  «end  their  letter?. 
It  should  he  borne  in  mind  that  every  through  line  is 
made  up  of  a  series  of  SHOKT  hauls.  Even  so  _>Tent  n 
through  line  as  the  New  York  Central  railway  carries  1.14 
local  passengers  to  one  through  passenger.  It  is  asserted 
that  if  letters  could  be  sent  around  the  world  for  nothing  ii 
would  not  alter  the  average  distance  they  are  now  sent. 
People  do  not  send  letters  to  get  the  most  out  of  the  govern- 
ment, but  to  suit  their  convenience  only,  and  they  send  them 
to  the  person  they  want  to  reach  whether  he  is  ten  miles  or 
3,000  miles  away.  People  use  the  street  cars  on  the  same 
principle  and  would  use  the  railways  in  exactly  the  same 
way.  They  would  go  where  they  had  business  or  to 
where  the  person  lived  they  wanted  to  see,  and  no  further. 
This  is  according  to  the  law  of  averages,  and  under  it  the 
distance  people  will  travel  on  an  average  can  be  calculated  to 
a  nicety.  This  is  t lie  principle  upon  which  the  "Penny  Post" 
was  established  and  has  worked  with  extreme  satisfaction.  It 
is  also  the  principle  upon  which  the  insurance  businrss,  the 
banks  and  other  like  businesses  are  conducted. 

Now,  owing  to  the  exorbitant  fares  charged  by  the  rail- 
ways, their  trains  only  carry  an  average   of  about  forty 
passengers  at  an  average  50-cent  fare,  when  they  could  easily 
/  carry  640  at  only  ;m  insiirnifieMiii  ;i<l«litional  cost  at  si  5-cent, 
^J  $32,  $160  and  $640  respectively,  instead  of  1  lie  piv<mi  aver- 
age of  $20  per  trip.     It  is  found  that  tin-  <li>t;m< •••  train-  run 
25-cent  or  a  $1  fare,  which  would  l»rin.ur  in  a  revenue  of 
or  the  loads  they  carry  cut  little  «>r  no  fi.LMiiv  in   ilu-  ex- 
penses  of  a  railroad.     In  other  words,  the  expenses  of  a  j 
railroad  system  an;  abonl  the  >anir  without  ivIVn-nre  in  tin- 
vnlunn-  «i|'  its  business.     Kvi-n  tin*  grades  on  a  railway  cost 
more  than  the  distance  traveled  by  its  trains. 


—13— 

At  present  they  haul  7,500  pounds  of  dead  weight  to 
every  passenger,  while  if  their  trains  ran  full  there  would 
be  no  additional  non-paying  weight  to  haul,  but  every  addi- 
tional pound  would  be  paying  tonnage.  Mr.  Wm.  M.  Ack- 
worth,  who  is  said  to  be  the  greatest  authority  in  England 
on  railways,  says  that  were  a  train  starting  from  London  for 
Glasgow,  410  miles,  and  a  passenger  who  would  not  other- 
wise have  gone  on  the  train  could  be  induced  to  go,  all  above 
ONE-HALF  A  CENT  of  his  fare  would  be  clear  profit  to 
the  company.  He  figures  the  expense  of  carrying  him  this 
410  miles  would  be  three-eighths  of  a  cent  for  coal  and  that 
the  other  eighth  of  a  cent  would  be  more  than  sufficient  to 
pay  for  oil  and  other  expenses.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
cost  of  transportation  after  the  machinery  is  once  set.  in 
motion  is  insignficant,  and  that  the  distance  one  is  carried 
does  not  count  in  the  cost  appreciably.  Mr.  Cowles  gives  a 
number  of  lacts  and  man}''  cases  of  actual  experience  of  the 
railways  proving  his  contentions.  I  shall  only  instance  a 
single  example. 

The  Northern  Pacific,  which  runs  through  Blue  Island, 
a  suburb  of  Chicago,  did  not  realize  enough  from  its  local 
trains  between  those  two  points,  a  distance  of  twenty  miles, 
to  pay  expenses  on  the  usual  fares.  If  put  down  the  fares 
to  a  flat  5  cents  without  reference  to  distance,  and  its  busi- 
ness at  once  doubled  and  increased  until  it  became  the  best 
paying  part  of  the  road.  The  manager,  Mr.  Ainslee,  said: 
'•j-nere  is  more  money  in  a  uniform  5-cent  fare  than  in  3 
cents  a  mile." 

The  same  principle  applies  to  freight  charges.  It  is 
found  that  distance  of  the  haul  does  not  cut  any  figure  in  the 
co-t,  and  that  the  principle  of  charging  a  low  uniform  rate, 
without  regard  to'  distance  of  haul,  is  the  most  profitable. 
Milk  has  been  carried  to  New  York  City  from  within  a 
radius  of  300  miles  at  a  uniform  charge  for  all  points  within 
that  distance  for  over  forty  years,  and  has  been  found  to 
work  with  great  satisfaction  to  both  railways  and  the  con- 
sumers. In  fact  many  points  in  the  United  States  have 
been  grouped  with  a  uniform  rate  between  all  points  within 
those  groups.  The  business  from  the  Pacific  coast  to  the 
east  has  been  grouped.  For  instance:  The  charges  from. 


.       —14— 

Los  Angeles  on  oranges  to  all  points  east  of  the  Mississippi 
river  have  been  made  uniform  and  are  the  same  to  Chicago, 
£,265  miles,  and  to  Xew  York,  3,180  miles. 

The  Great  Eastern  railway  of  England  carries  packages 
lo  and  from  any  two  points  on  its  1,000  miles  of  road  at  a 
uniform  rate  without  regard  to  distance. 

Mr.  Cowles  proposes  a  tariff  of  $6.00  per  car  load  for 
any  distance  in  the  United  States.  When  the  foregoing 
facts  are  taken  into  consideration,  and  also  what  I  have 
heretofore  stated,  that  the  average  freight  train  runs  with 
40  per  cent  of  its  cars  empty  under  the  present  high  rates, 
that  the  average  car  only  carries  about  three  ton  loads  when 
it  might  carry  thirty  tons  just  as  well,  that  our  big  locomo- 
tives can  haul  from  1,200  tto  1,800  tons  just  as  well  as  they 
now  haul  the  present  load  of  forty  tons,  that  each  car  might 
just  as  well  be  made  to  do  200  days'  work  in  place  of  the 
paltry  twelve  days  per  year  it  now  does,  and  that  it  now  only 
earns  an  average  of  $6.40  per  haul  when  it  might  just  as 
\\cll  make  ten  or  twenty  hauls  at  $6.00  per  haul  as  proposed 
by  Mr.  Cowles,  it  becomes  certain  that  the  rate  tariff  he 
proposes  is  entirely  practicable  and  that  the  railways  would 
earn  far  greater  revenues  under  these  low  rates  than  they 
now  do  under  the  present  extortionate  charges.  Mr.  Cowles 
estimates  that  their  earnings  would  be  at  least  double  what 
they  now  are. 

The  railways  are  the  nerves  and  arteries  of  our  whole 
social  and  industrial  systems,  and  when  they  clog  these 
arteries,  as  they  are  doing  by  their  extortionate  charges,  they 
become  public  enemies  and  ruinous  to  the  whole  business 
jui'l  social  system.  Henry  I).  Lloyd  says  that  ''our  highways 
an-  used  to  prevent  travel."  Also,  that  "ownership  of  the 
hi-  hways  ends  in  the  ownership  of  everything  and  everybody 
that  has  to  use  them."  He  further  says  that  no  farmer  who 
defends  on  the  use  of  the  railways  has  more  than  a  nominal 
lit1-  to  his  farm,  for  the  railways  ean,  by  their  absolute 
t.o\v(T  over  transportation,  raise  or  lower,  or  make  wort  hie--, 
the  value  of  his  farm.  A.  B.  Stickney,  a  railroad  manager, 
pars  that  farmers  are  systematical lv  di-eriminated  against 
.t  very  year  by  the  railroads;  that  they  make  high  rates  to 


—15— 

the  farmer  on  his  grain  and  so  lower  its  value,  and  when  the 
dealers  have  bought  it  make  secret  low  rates  to  them  on  the 
grain  until  it  is  all  moved  to  market.  He  says  the  railroads 
of  this  country  exercise  powers  that  would  cause  a  violent 
revolution  if  undertaken  by  the  government. 

Now  I  have  given  a  plain  statement  of  the  alarming  and 
dangerous  facts  about  our  railway  system,  and  what  tre- 
mendous advantages  we  might  reap  if  they  were  owned  and 
^operated  by  the  nation.  It  must  be  clear  to  the  dullest 
understanding  that  they  have  got  us  by  the  throat  and  will 
destroy  what  few  liberties  we  have  left  unless  we  take  action 
in  the  matter  soon.  I,  for  one,  do  not  think  we  have  any 
choice  left,  and  that  they  only  thing  we  can  do  to  save  our- 
selves is  to  assert  our  right  and  our  power  and  condemn 
them  as  dangerous  and  intolerable  nuisances  and  take  them 
out  of  irresponsible  private  hands,  where  they  never  ought 
to  have  been,  and  run  them  as  they  were  intended  to  be  run, 
in  the  interest  of  the  whole  people.  We  delude  ourselves  with 
the  idea  that  we  are  a  free  people,  when,  in  fact,  we  are  living 
under  the  most  vicious  and  crushing  industrial  tyranny  in 
the  world  today.  We  boast  of  being  the  most  progressive 
people  on  earth,  when,  in  fact,  we  are  behind  every  other 
civilized  nation  in  this  vital  matter.  Every  nation  in  Eu- 
rope, except  England,  owns  its  railways  in  whole  or  in  part, 
and  England  is  said  to  be  arranging  to  take  hers  over. 

That  tioess?  publicly  owned  railways  are  better  managed, 
even  when  managed  by  monarchies  and  absolute  governments, 
are  cheaper  and  run  more  in  the  interests  of  the  people  than 
our  privately  owned  roads  is  beyond  question.  Our  railways 
kill  seven  times,  and  maim  ten  times  as  many  passengers  as 
the  German  roads;  our  average  fares  are  over  two  cents  per 
mile.  In  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany  and  Austria  fares 
are  onlv  three-fourths  of  a  cent  per  mile.  In  Russia  one 
can  travel  2,000  miles  for  $6.00.  Belgium  workingmen  ride 
at  a  little  over  one-tenth  of  a  cent  per  mile(nine  miles  for  a 
cent).  Belgium  sells  a  ticket  for  $5.50  good  to  ride  fifteen 
days.  Denmark  does  the  same:  Switzerland  issues  a  like 
ticket  for  $6.00.  She  also  issues  a  ticket  good  to  ride  for  a 
year  for  $57.90.  And  yet,  all  these  roads  are  run  at  a  profit, 


—16— 

and  the  ..erman  empire  is  said  to  get  half  its  revenues  froiri 
the  profits  of  its  railroads. 

Xo  discriminations  are  made  on  these  roads,  and  th< 
"deadly  secret  rebate"  practiced  on  American  railroads 
unknown.  The  poorest  peasant  can  ship  his  small  products 
at  as  low  a  rate  as  the  largest  and  most  powerful  shipper. 

"Since  mankind  were  first  welded  into  nations,  th< 
highways  have  always  been  the  symbol  of  government. 
the  owner  of  the  highways  has  been  the  government."  Ii 
this  country  the  railways  not  only  own  the  highways  and  tin 
government,  but  they  own  and  control  the  people  as  well 
their  private  property,  and  they  practice  the  most  irresponsi- 
ble, arbitrary  and  despotic  tyranny  of  any  institution  on 
earth  todav.  Xo\v  what  are  we  going  to  do  about  it  ?  It 
up  to  the  American  people  to  settle  this  question  and  do  ii 
soon. 


Civilization  Civilized 


By  STEPHEN  MAYBE,LL. 


A  Socialistic  Work  on  the  Truths  of  Human  Association, 


A  prominent  book  reviewer  In  an  eastern  p"!"''1  S'*.VH  of  Civilization  Clvill/ed: 
have  attentively  read  this  lunik  and  Ihul  Ii  a  detailed  plan  to  retina  e  fore\  enimre  all 
pecuniary  distress  and  all  political  Ills.  Proposition!  are  so  numerous  ami  so  Impractical 
hie  that  we  commenced  our  review  prejudiced  In  advance,  but  us  we  \>r«<  -eeiled  our 
emotions  were:  Flr«t.  mirprlse:  ceo-nd.  pleasure;  third.  COOT  lotion  and  delight.  That 
our  author  has  really  found  the.  DhlkMOpber*!  stum-  fur  the  removal  Of  "11  human  Ills  U 
certain.  Kvery  friend  of  humanity  should  hare  a  copy  of  this  hook." 

The   Appeal   has  JUKI   Issued  a  new  edition  of  this  popular  hook,  und  It  I*  now  read) 
for  mailing.     Mr.  Maybell  has  re-written  and  added  much  new  matter  to  It—  making  It 
valuable  Sociological  work.    While  It  has  always  sold  for  50  cents,  the  Appeal'H  edition] 
printed  on  good  paper  with  handsome  cover,  will  he  sold  at  the  remarkably  low  price 

20  cents  per  copy;  six  copies,  $1 


Appeal  to  Reason,  Girard,  Kas 


300396 


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